Following a meeting last Friday with senior representatives from the Charities Commission, Island MP Andrew Turner has called for an investigation into the circumstances that led to the collapse of Island Volunteers and its subsidiary companies earlier this year leading to the loss of a number of jobs.
Mr Turner said his own enquiries had uncovered that the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) had given over £2.3 million pounds of public money to the organisation over a number of years, yet no routine monitoring visits had been carried out to check that services were being delivered or that proper financial procedures were in place. Coupled with the knowledge that BBC Children in Need had refused a grant in 2002 partly on the grounds that there were concerns about the future financial viability of the organisation Mr Turner said this gave rise to legitimate questions that should be investigated by the Charities Commission.
Mr Turner has also discovered that there was a special investigation in 2003 by the Department for Work and Pensions into a number of specific allegations which identified a number of shortcomings in the procedures at Island Volunteers including the fact that they were employing a foreign national who required a work permit but did not have one. Kenneth Dibble the Director of Legal and Charity Services said he would consider launching a full investigation once he had looked into matters further.
The Island’s MP said
“I am very grateful to those who have come forward with information and their worries about how the charity was run. I am passing that information to the Charities Commission as part of my file of evidence. I am particularly concerned that GOSE seem to have been doling out large amounts of public money with no checks that the money was being properly spent and I intend to raise that matter directly with ministers. A full investigation should be launched so that lessons can be learned for the future. There were signs that should have rung alarm bells with those responsible for public money but sadly it appears that it did not. ”
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Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808
